1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the handling of beltless ammunition in an automatic weapon system, and in particular to the use of an oscillating breech for loading beltless ammunition into a twin-barreled gun.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Rapid-fire guns and cannons using multiple barrels are well known to the art and have been devised to fire both belted as well as beltless ammunition. The amount of ammunition which such guns can fire is extremely high and the limiting factor of operation often limited by the rate at which such weapons systems can fire or load the unfired rounds, and in the situation of cased ammunition, additionally handle empty cases from fired rounds. One example of a two-barreled gun using cased ammunition is shown by Marquardt, "Rapid-Fire Gun with Two Barrels and a Plurality of Firing Chambers", U.S. Pat. No. 2,972,286. In that application ammunition was provided to the firing mechanism from an upper and lower chute, moving the rounds in opposite directions as best illustrated in Marquardt's FIGS. 6 and 11. A system for loading beltless ammunition described by Wiese, "Feeding Mechanism in an Automatic Cannon for Firing Caseless Ammunition", U.S. Pat. No. 3,608,424, wherein a four-chambered drum is oscillated by a reversible electric motor. Wiese illustrates a single-barreled automatic weapon system which is able to draw ammunition from two independent magazines. However, caseless ammunition is not a practical alternative in all applications and Wiese naturally fails to show any means for removing cartridges since Wiese's automatic weapon system is restricted for use with caseless ammunition.
An additional problem with rapid-fire guns using cased ammunition is that usually a complex and intricate ejection mechanism must be devised within the breech of the gun to remove the expended cartridge after firing. Normally, this requires a reciprocating movement by first placing the unfired round into the breech and then removing the expended cartridge in the opposite direction. One prior art attempt to provide a simplified means for removing a fired cartridge as well as jammed rounds is shown by Ketterer et al, "Shoulder Arm with Swivel-Breech Member", U.S. Pat. No. 4,348,941, wherein a rotating breech includes a bore defined therethrough into which an unfired cartridge is inserted from a magazine. The breech is then rotated about an axis perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the bore to rotate the bore through 90.degree. to align the unfired cartridge with the barrel bore. After firing the breech is again rotated about the axis perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the bore by an additional 90.degree. to align the bore with an ejection opening and with an unfired round from the magazine. The new incoming unfired round thereby forces the spent cartridge from the bore out the ejection opening. During normal operation, the breech then oscillates back and forth between the firing and the loading/ejection position. However, the system of Ketterer is a single-barreled system and is not adapted to feeding multiple barrels using the same loading system, and therefore includes an inherent limitation in the firing rate of the gun.
What is needed is some means for providing cased ammunition to a multiple barreled gun which can supply unfired rounds to the corresponding multiple breeches, and simply and quickly remove the expended cartridges therefrom.